Water Pollution Analysis

1. INTRODUCTION

Water is used for production, construction and consumption amongst other uses. Water that meets the required quality sustains lives, promotes good public health and sustainable environment (National resources defense council, 2014)). Most of the world water resources lack basic protection from factory, industries and other activities that pollute the water; which leads to contamination of drinking water, habitat degradation and beach closures. Polluted water sources threaten life span and wellbeing by destabilizing the ecosystem.

Botkin and Keller (2008) define water pollution as the degradation of water quality. The extent and degree of water pollution depends on the pollutant, the ecological impact of the pollution and the

Changes in the water quality happen naturally, human activities such as industrial activities, agricultural and urban settlements produces toxic substances and nutrients that end up in the water bodies and therefore, degrade the water quality.

2. SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION

There are two types of water pollution sources; non-point and point source water pollution. The point source water pollution is described as something you can physically point with a single origin or where the source is clear such as a pipe from a sewage treatment plant (4-H Toyota University of Illinois, 2009). The 4-H Toyota University of

Illinois, (2009) describes the non-point source pollution as pollution coming from many natural and manmade sources and locations, caused by runoff and seepage into the groundwater sources. Figure 1 explains the sources of water pollution.

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Figure 1: Sources of water pollution (Alterner, 2014)

Majority of inorganic chemical water pollutants are produced by non-point source

Burst pipes, major leaks, oil spills and fires are amongst the main sources of accidental water pollution. The damage degree depends of the toxicity, quantity and persistence of the pollutant.

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Acid mine drainage

South Africa uses coal for energy production and during the process most coal mines were opened. Most of the abandoned mines leads to Acid mine drainage. Acid mine drainage defines as the water with a high concentration of sulphuric acid that drains from mines from coal mines but also metal mines (copper, lead, and zinc) (botkin &

Keller, 2008). In South Africa many studies have been conducted with relation to water pollution at mining areas.

Hill, (2012) found that the increased solubility of metals caused the pH values of the three sites to be below 5, whereas the median concentration of metals exceeded the acceptable limit by the South African criteria for Aquatic ecosystem. The other results showed the toxicity of metals on aquatic life showed that Daphnia pulex (waterflea) on surface water had low toxicity at very low dilution concentrations.

Morakane, (2012) discovered that Sulphur was found in the mine residue which indicates that there is a potential for acid mine drainage to occur, it was also found